Thornography

Thornography is the seventh studio album by English extreme metal band Cradle of Filth. It was released on 17 October 2006, by record label Roadrunner. It was produced by former Anthrax guitarist Rob Caggiano, engineered by Dan Turner and mixed by Andy Sneap, and once again features narration by Doug Bradley (as with Midian and Nymphetamine). It is Cradle of Filth's second album as a five piece, as keyboardist Martin Powell left the band in 2005. This would also be the band's final album to feature drummer Adrian Erlandsson, and the only full length to feature guitarist Charles Hedger.

In news posted on the official Cradle of Filth website in mid May 2006, it was revealed that the planned artwork for Thornography had been vetoed by Roadrunner Records. A replacement was soon forthcoming, although numerous CD booklets had already been printed with the original image. Filth stated in an interview with Metal Hammer that the controversy was over the nakedness of the female figure's legs on the original cover: "When we put the original next to the new version, it was so slightly changed The nymph's skirt was a little longer. It was like a game of spot the difference". Charles Hedger told Gothtronic. com that the new cover "is practically the same A lot of Americans are really religious and Roadrunner were basically saying that Wal Mart was not going to take Cradle albums with that on the cover. But Wal Mart never takes Cradle albums anyhow, so it doesn't make any difference."

Three cover versions were recorded during the album's sessions, namely Samhain's "Halloween II", Shakespears Sister's "Stay", and Heaven 17's "Temptation". "Halloween II" (renamed "HW2") was released on the Underworld: Evolution soundtrack. It is included as a bonus track on the Japanese release of the album. "Temptation" is part of Thornography's finalised track listing, and features vocals by Harry. Harry also stars in the promo video for the track, which was released a week before the album as a digital single. "Stay" surfaced in early 2008 on the Harder, Darker, Faster re release (see below). A press release by Liv Kristine The latter is the version included on the re release. Early reports during the album's production process mentioned a track called "The Flora of Nightfall, The Fauna of War". It is unknown which track this was the working title for, although the words appear as a lyric in "Cemetery and Sundown".

Thornography was released on 17 October 2006. It debuted at number 66 on the Billboard Top 200 chart, selling nearly 13,000 copies. It reached number 46 in the UK Albums Chart.

Harder, Darker, Faster: Thornography Deluxe was released on 4 February 2008. This version is a CD DVD package, with the original album in standard stereo format on CD and DVD and the following additional bonus tracks on the DVD only: "Murder in the Thirst", "The Snake Eyed and the Venomous", "Halloween II" (a cover of the song by Samhain which had previously appeared on the soundtrack to the film Underworld: Evolution), "Courting Baphomet", "Stay" (a cover of the song by Shakespears Sister) and "Devil to the Metal". Original plans to include "Mater Lachrymarum", a song from the soundtrack to the 2007 Dario Argento film The Mother of Tears that Dani contributed to, were scrapped due to rights issues.